Program Description

Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Clinical Training Program

The Geriatric Medicine Fellowship is a one-year ACGME accredited training program for board-eligible internists and family practitioners. The fellowship is an integrated experience based at several sites: a teaching nursing home, an Acute Care for Elders Unit (ACE) in a community hospital, a Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) site, and a Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC). The fellowship is clinically focused and includes longitudinal nursing home care, rehabilitation, neurology consultation, primary care of outpatients, home care, and comprehensive geriatric and psychiatric assessment. Fellows also participate in the Geriatric Division's educational activities including: journal club, grand rounds, and fellows' conference, as well as participating in the education of internal medicine and family medicine housestaff, as well as medical students.

At the end of twelve months of sub-specialty training the geriatric medicine, fellows are eligible for subspecialty board certification in geriatric medicine. They are fully prepared to provide primary and consultative health care to geriatric patients in hospital, nursing home, and office settings. The fellows' training includes a multi-dimensional biopsychosocial view of assessment, treatment, and management of health problems in older adults. Fellows will gain skills through a combination of supervised clinical experiences and formal didactic conferences. In addition to the requisite body of knowledge, each fellow develops leadership and teaching skills, professional attitudes, and practical experiences required of a geriatrician. Additional years of research-based training are available to qualified fellows.

Training and Rotation Sites

Monroe Community Hospital

Geriatric Assessment Clinic - The program aims to maintain frail older adults in the community at the most independent level as possible through an interdisciplinary approach of comprehensive geriatric assessment. The clinic features a Geriatric Health Care Team that thoroughly evaluates the health and functional ability of older persons by examination, and interviewing both patient and family, in addition to gathering information from the primary care physician.

Long-Term Care - Each fellow is assigned a panel of long-term care patients, at Monroe Community Hospital, which they will follow longitudinally with an attending physician during their tenure as a fellow. Other experiences include participation on a closed wandering/behavior unit at MCH and a respiratory unit for ventilator-dependent patients at an affiliated facility.

Neurology - Fellows participate in inpatient neurologic consultation at Monroe Community Hospital and outpatient consultation and neurology clinic at Monroe Community Hospital. They are involved in didactic teaching rounds with an attending geriatric neurologist.

Psychiatry - The Psychiatry Department at Monroe Community Hospital is world-renowned for its groundbreaking work in cognitive disorders and dementias and continues to actively participate in innovative clinical trials. Fellows participate in a two month rotation of inpatient psychiatric consultation on long-term care patients at Monroe Community Hospital as well as outpatient evaluation in the neurology and psychiatry clinic. (Their involvement is also encouraged in the ongoing research and clinical trials in Alzheimer's Disease and other dementing disorders and behavioral disturbances.)

Rehabilitation - MCH is home to one of the most experienced short-term rehabilitation programs in the region providing individualized care to people with disabling conditions as result of an illness or injury. Geriatric Medicine fellows participate in a three month rotation on a comprehensive, interdisciplinary teaching service and are responsible as team members for the primary care of the patients. Fellows interact with specialists in medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, recreation therapy, social work, clergy, audiology, nursing, and nutrition. The treatment team is committed to restoring each patient's physical and cognitive skills, enabling him or her to be as self-reliant and independent as possible.

Acute Care for Elders (ACE) unit. Highland Hospital is a community hospital that has a long tradition of outstanding care with research and education in the biopsychosocial model and physician-patient communication. It is quickly becoming the center for the care of the hospitalized elderly with its innovative ACE Unit. Fellows have an opportunity to both learn and teach during this required rotation. Fellows also participate in peri-operative geriatric consultation and comanagement on the Geriatric Fracture Center and Palliative Care Consultation.

A PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) replication site. A PACE site provides an interdisciplinary, adult daycare centered comprehensive plan of care to nursing home eligible individuals in their own home. Most disciplines including physicians, nurse practitioners, skilled nursing, rehabilitative services, social work, pastoral care, dental care, eye care, podiatry, dietary, and aide services are offered at the three day center locations.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has a long history of supporting geriatrics educational and research activities. The Canandaigua VA Medical Center is a 300-bed facility affiliated with the University of Rochester which provides extended care for veterans with physical and mental disabilities. The 150-bed nursing home program includes post-acute care, medical nursing home care and a 30-bed dementia unit. The Canandaigua facility and an affiliated Rochester Clinic located proximal to the University and Monroe Community Hospital, also offer a variety of outpatient services. Fellows rotating through the VA have opportunities for involvement in the outpatient clinic services, palliative care services and the Home Based Primary Care programs.

Current Fellows

Geriatric Medicine Fellows 2015-2016

Sarmad Siddiqui, MBBS
Dr. Sarmad Siddiqui completed his medical training at Nagpur University, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Mayo Hospital in Nagpur, India. He then completed a rotating internship and served as an assistant physician in Jalna, India before coming to the United States to complete his Family Medicine Residency training at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, New York. As a resident physician he was the recipient of the Jeannette Schwartz-Anne Smith Memorial Award for Excellence. Following graduation he joined Faxton St. Luke’s Hospital in Utica where he served as a hospitalist physician for the last 7 years, this experience of caring for hospitalized frail older adults motivated him to pursue further training in geriatric medicine.

Leigh Ann Deshong, MD
Dr. Ann Deshong started with her interest in geriatrics through work as a nursing assistant in a hospital subacute unit. She then went on to earn several scholarships and completed her undergraduate education in biology at Juniata College in Pennsylvania prior to attending medical school at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. As a medical student, Ann held leadership roles in the American Medical Student Association Chapter as well as conducted several research projects related to geriatric consultation and community weight loss interventions. She then joined the Internal Medicine Residency program at the University of Rochester where she has participated in the leadership of the Resident Aging Interest Group.

Heather Hopkins Gil, MD
Dr. Heather Hopkins Gil completed her undergraduate training in physiology at McGill University in Montreal prior to attending medical school at the University of Rochester. Heather distinguished herself early on in medical school with her interest in geriatrics, enrolling in the Medical Education Pathway, serving as the President of the medical student Aging Interest Group and completing a summer research project at the University of Chicago in geriatric oncology under the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program sponsored by the American Federation for Aging Research and the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Hopkins Gil then stayed at the University of Rochester to complete her residency training in Internal Medicine. She is a past recipient of the R. Knight Steel Award for Excellence in Geriatrics in 2010 as a medical student and she received the T. Franklin William Award in 2014 as a resident physician.

Jennifer Muniak, MD
Dr. Jen Muniak completed her undergraduate training in neuroscience at the University of Rochester where she was the recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Scholarship. Jen then went on to medical school at SUNY Upstate and joined the University of Rochester for her internal medicine residency training. She was awarded the Community Service Award from the Medical Society of the State of New York in 2010. She has practiced as hospitalist physician at Highland Hospital and participated in geriatric training under the Reynolds Foundation “Next Steps” grant for hospitalists and subspecialists. She has always had a strong interest in the care of older adults and joined the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship in July 2014 and she took a leave of absence during this training to become a mother in addition to her already impressive achievements. Jen will complete fellowship training in mid-September 2015 and rejoin the Highland Hospital Geriatrics Group working at the Acute Care for Elders unit and the Geriatric Fracture Center at Highland Hospital.

Applying to the Program

The application (in Word format) for a Fellowship with the Division of Geriatrics can be viewed on-screen and can be printed (if a printer is attached). Typed applications are preferred or hand-written legibly. Applications are also accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).